The Deacon’s View
“Surfboards and Mending Baskets”

Remember when every home had a mending basket?  It was usually located near the chair where mother or grandmother sat.  It held socks with holes and balls of “darning cotton”, plus a wooden “thing” that helped to keep the sock in shape while it was being mended.  My Grandmother taught me how to darn.  It was a delicate art of weaving.  First the sock’s hole had to be opened over the wooden insert, and then a fine web of threads was created to make a grid. Using this grid, the needle then began the careful work of weaving—not too tight, or the result would be an uncomfortable knot; but, not too loose, or you’d still end up with a hole.  A skilled darner made the sock almost like new.

I had long-forgotten this ancient domestic skill (we now live in an age where socks with holes are tossed and replaced with new without so much as a thought), until our fourteen year old grandson's recent surfing accident.  In a large wave, he was tossed off his board, which then flew through the air and hit him, fin-first, squarely in the face.  At the hospital, a plastic surgeon tackled a slash that went from Sam’s eye to his upper lip.  The surgeon could have been trained by my Grandmother.  Starting first with the deepest layer of torn tissue, he began to delicately stitch, not too tight, not too loose.  Then he’d move to the next layer, and the next until he reached the surface.  Like Grandmother’s socks, Sam is almost like new.

What does all this have to do with us at St. Paul’s in this season of Easter?  Pay attention to the great words from Psalm 139:13-15


“For you, O God, created my inward being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made...when I was woven together.”  

These words speak to me not only of God’s creating power, but also of God’s great healing power.  In each of our lives there is always the need for on-going healing and restoring.  We become most aware of our need of physical healing.  But we remain pretty clueless about the deepest parts of ourselves that also need to be mended carefully and skillfully by the Great physician who knows us better than we can know ourselves.  On Easter Sunday we all shouted enthusiastically, “He is risen. The Lord is risen indeed!”  If these are words we truly believe, then we know that the One who can heal us is ALIVE and AVAILABLE.  Perhaps the best prayer any of us can pray is, “Lord, heal that part of me that most needs it, and help me to cooperate with your mending.”  Chances are that God will start somewhere deep inside us, a place where we have unraveled, but have grown so used to it that we are no longer aware of the pain.  At first, we won’t know anything is happening.  But god is slowly preparing the grid so that the re-weaving can begin.  With God doing the mending, we are made good as new.

The Lord is Risen indeed.
    Your Deacon,
               Gay Blundell